Gin and Tonic for a Friends
by forgetablelove
Summary: Friends don't let friends drink alone. SnapexTonks


Tonks smiled at Remus. "It was good to see you."

He smiled back, nodding. "It was great to see you." They parted ways with a hug – a hug that was filled with platonic feelings, loneliness, and tension.

Tonks was thinking how nice it felt to be on good terms with her ex, even if the relationship was strained and slightly broken, when she noticed a familiar wizard heading towards the Leaky Cauldron. No one seemed to be accompanying him, so she followed himself without calling attention to herself.

She watched as Severus Snape sat at the bar and ordered a drink, seemingly uncaring about the dirty looks he received from the other patrons. It was as if he was unwelcome or something. She smiled to herself at his oblivious behavior and crept up behind him.

"Drinking alone?" she asked. He didn't react to her voice, didn't even acknowledge her presence. She took the seat beside him and repeated her question, slight louder, "Drinking alone?"

He sighed heavily and turned to look at her. "Where's your werewolf?"

Her smile didn't falter at his lack of tact. "He went home I suspect, but if he didn't it's none of my business."

"Your relationship didn't last long."

She shrugged. "No, it didn't, but at least we are still friends."

"Are you? It is possible to be friends with exes?" he asked, mockingly philosophical with his eyebrows raised in fake interest.

She grinned at him. "You can, but no one can expect you to know since you don't have an ex."

"What do you want?" he asked, a slight edge entering his voice.

She shrugged. "Nothing. I was just curious if you were drinking alone."

"I am, but that's less your business than whether or not the werewolf went home," he pointed out, taking a long drink from his glass.

"Gin and tonic," she ordered from the bartender.

The pair sat in comfortable silence until Tonks' drink was slid in front of her. "Thanks," she said before turning back to Severus. "No one should drink alone." She raised her glass slightly in a sarcastic toast before taking a long drink.

He looked at her for a long moment, trying to read her. He shook his head suddenly. "You're impossible."

"What?" She set down her glass and gave him a curious look.

"You. Are. Impossible," he repeated saying each word as if it was its own sentence.

"I'm not stupid—"

"Are you sure about that?" he challenged with an arrogant smile.

"Oh, yes I'm positive. You on the other hand… that's debatable," she retorted with a falsely sweet smile.

He didn't respond as he took another drink.

"Anyway, why am I impossible?" she pressed, leaning toward him like she was ready to hear a secret.

"Would you like a list?"

She pulled back and laughed. "A list of things that make me impossible? I think your definition is different from everyone else's then."

He smiled wickedly. "Normally my definition on most things is different than the world's."

"Are you proud of that? Or being eccentric?"

"Of course."

She raised her eyebrows in response, but took a drink instead of replying.

"You are obviously proud of being eccentric as well."

"I'm not eccentric."

"Right."

"I'm not!"

He ordered a refill and ignored her for the ten minutes as he finished off his second drink. She nursed her first drink and watched him out of the corner of her eye, trying to decide what to say or do next. He seemed lost in whatever thoughts he was having, a dark cloud cast over his face as he brooded.

"You don't seem to be in the drinking mood," he told her suddenly.

She turned to look at him fully, and smiled. "I'm drinking—" She held up her almost empty glass to show him. "—but I didn't come here to drink really…"

"Oh? Why did you come in here then?" he asked.

"To see you…" she whispered, suddenly uncomfortably be her admission.

"Why would you want to see me?" He seemed genuinely interested and shocked, as if he couldn't fathom the idea of someone wanting to talk to him.

"Friends don't let friends drink alone."

"Are we friends then?"

"Yes, we are."

"Is there any way I can get out of this?"

"No. I've already decided." She grinned at him, determined not to take the insult in his question personal.

"Don't I have a say?" he insisted, his tone serious.

"If you're going to say no, then no, you don't have a say."

He laughed darkly. "That's hardly fair."

"Life isn't fair," she retort quickly. She removed the lime from the edge of her glass and dumped the rest of the continents down her throat and asked for another.

"Gin and tonic?" Severus asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Tonks said, surprised by the question and braced herself for the underlying insult or reason to his random question.

"I pegged you for a wine person."

She scoffed. "Not really. On special occasions maybe."

He shook his head; he looked clearly out his element and taken off guard by her answer.

"Does it really matter what I drink?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"What?"

"If it doesn't matter, why did you ask?"

He shrugged. "I was just asking."

"You're a strange – albeit intriguing – man," she said shaking her head.

Another silence fell over the pair. Severus didn't seem to know what to say by her statement, and she didn't want to embellish since she wasn't sure why she blurted her conclusion out. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just heavy.

"I have to go," he said abruptly, standing up.

"At least you didn't have to drink alone," she said, smiling up at him as he downed the rest of his drink.

---

Tonks went back to the Leaky Cauldron the next night, knowing that she wanted to see if Severus was there again but doubting he was. She was surprised to see his familiar form sitting in the same stool he had been the night before. As she walked up to him she plotted what she would say to him. "Do you come here every night?" she asked.

He didn't move for a moment then slowly turned to look at her. "Apparently you do."

She slid in the adjacent stool and looked at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the bartender sliding a glass in front of her seat. She looked down and saw that it was a gin and tonic. "I didn't order this."

"He did," the man answered from down the bar, nodding at Severus.

Tonks turned back and looked at him. "You ordered my drink for me? Before I came?"

He shrugged, not answering her question.

She grinned as she picked up her drink. "Interesting, very interesting… Well, no one likes to drink alone." She sipped her glass and noticed with amusement that Severus looked uncomfortable.


End file.
